The UK immigration court has rejected Adil Khan and Qari Abdul Rauf’s appeal against deportation and said that the two would be sent back to Pakistan after release from jail for the public good. The two were convicted of involvement in a grooming gang that raped nearly 50 girls in Rochdale, United Kingdom nearly a decade ago. The duo had in July this year invoked their ‘human right’ to fight their deportation to Pakistan.
While rejecting the plea, the immigration Judges Charlotte Welsh and Judge Siew Ling Yoke stated that Khan had shown a “breath-taking lack of remorse” and in his and Rauf’s case, there was a very strong public interest in them being kicked out of the UK.
Notably, the decision by the tribunal was made in August but was only made public on Thursday, October 27.
Adil Khan and Qari Abdul Rauf, who were part of the Grooming gang that raped dozens of girls in the UK’s Rochdale were convicted for their crimes in May 2012. As per the UK police, nine members of the Rochdale sex grooming gang, including Khan and Rauf, operated in various parts of the country from 2008 to 2010, supplying girls as young as 12 with alcohol and drugs and gang-raping them in various locations, sometimes “pimping” them out for money. As many as 47 girls were assaulted in the two years.
According to reports, Adil Khan impregnated a 13-year-old girl before trafficking a 15-year-old girl for sex and using violence against her when she complained. He was sentenced to eight years in prison but was released four years later.
Abdul Rauf, meanwhile, was convicted for trafficking a 15-year-old for sex, taking her to a flat in Rochdale where he and his acquaintances sexually abused her. He was sentenced to six years before being released after two and a half years in prison. He is a father of five children.
The duo’s deportation proceedings were launched by the then Home Secretary Theresa May ‘for the public good’. In July 2022, the duo invoked their ‘human right’ to fight their deportation to Pakistan.
During the hearing, Khan had argued that he shouldn’t be deported because his son needed a role model. Moreover, their lawyers claimed that their human rights prevented them from being deported and that they had certificates renouncing their Pakistani citizenship. It was argued that their deportation would violate Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which relates to the right to a private and family life.
However, the court has now put the seven-year-old legal battle to rest as it said that there was a “very strong public interest” to deport the pair as soon as possible.
